The Biggest Enemy In The War On Terror? PowerPoint

The US military in Afghanistan and Iraq spends so much time on making and watching PowerPoint presentations that it's become a huge problem. The New York Timeshas a great story on the issue.

This is interesting not just in itself but because we think it applies to pretty much any organization that cares about productivity.

Here are some key points on PowerPoint addiction and what you can do about it:

PowerPoint is damaging not just because it's a drag in terms of time, but also because it creates "the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control," according to Gen. H.R. McMaster. Once you've sketched out a problem in nice slides and bulletpoints, it feels like you've solved it, but actually you haven't. Our experience with consultants makes us think this is basically dead on.

Some junior military officers have become referred to as "PowerPoint Rangers" because they spend their time preparing slides for senior officers. One Army platoon leader in Iraq was asked what his most time-consuming task was, and he replied "PowerPoint." He then added he wasn't joking. How many people inside your organization could this apply to?

This advice is not new but worth repeating anyway: top managers like Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ask for slides printed out in advance to come prepared and cut down on meeting time.

And here's the worse part about this whole thing: even though everyone thinks the military's addiction to PowerPoint is terrible, no one thinks it will go away. You don't have to write a whole report, and you can show maps and graphs. It's just too damn convenient. For your organization, this means you can't just dislike PowerPoint. You need to fight it tooth and nail.

Another interesting thing we learned reading the article: PowerPoint was not initially created by Microsoft, but acquired. As we ponder a bunch of wise or not-so-wise tech acquisitions, it's useful to remember that some acquisitions can be enormously successful for tech companies -- even if they end up wrecking the world's productivity in the process.

Yes, Powerpoint *can* become overly time consuming with presenters trying to not only make a point persuasively and in a way that the audience can understand and appreciate, but also sucking up tons of time in trying to make the deck look beautiful.

Having said that, there is an often overlooked benefit of this process. It forces presenters to think through what they're going to say and forces them to actually organize their thoughts into something meaningful. Unlike a lengthy white paper or other similar document, it is often boiled down to just the most important and relevant points -- saving others the time and energy of having to do the analysis themselves. I wonder if those leveling the accusation here have bothered to think of the productivity generated as a result of those who are the recipients of (a well-done) PPT deck.

I've been to so many meetings where I WISHED that the ones who were running them had bothered to put together a PPT presentation. If they had they would have realized that they had nothing to say and we could have skipped the meeting altogether.